Pomoflow – the Marriage of Pomodoro and Flow

Pomoflow is a pomodoro app for macOS that lives in the menu bar. It’s a super simple program that does two things: Keeps track of the time you have left in your pomdoro, and the time you have left for the designated work session. The ladder timer is what separates Pomoflow from other Pomodoro apps. The point of the second timer, is to solve the fundamental problem with the pomdoro technique: It’s not conducive to flow. Let me explain that.

The traditional technique is good at what its designers intended it to be good at, beat procrastination. By focusing on working for no more than 25 minutes before taking a break, starting becomes easier. For some though, that’s not the reason to use the pomodoro technique. It’s used because breaks are good for productivity. Focusing intensely for some amount of time followed by a break, then focusing again, repeating the pattern a set number of times, is better than focusing for the entire work session uninterrupted. Breaks are not always good though, sometimes you’re in the flow and should capitalize on that by skipping them. This causes a problem when you use a pomdoro session as your unit of time when planning how long you should work. Your plan to get shit done for the duration of three pomdoros causes some problems if one of those pomdoros was three times as long as originally planned. Thus, you can’t both plan how long to work in pomodoro sessions and lose yourself in a flow state where time doesn’t exist.

That´s where Pomoflow comes in. You tell the app how long it should let you work, so you’re free to ignore it when it reminds you to take a break. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t take breaks, for the sake of your productivity you absolutely should. If you’re not in the flow state, taking a break after a certain amount of time is the best course of action. But having the option to skip breaks, knowing that you can let yourself work without checking the clock, is freeing.

Of course, you could achieve the same effect with an alarm and a normal pomodoro app. I made Pomoflow to make the process a bit easier. Plus, aren’t you tired of having ads in your pomdoro timer? If you’re interested, get Pomoflow here